Shining
by inkywings
Summary: Sidestory to Two Sides of a Coin. New Year's Eve at Disney Castle... what's Sora up to? Bad ending, sorry! Oneshot.


**A Very Merry Kingdom Hearts New Year to you all! Okay, not exactly Kingdom Hearts… but close enough!**

**I'm tired of sitting in my room, being completely bored, and just staring at the computer, angsting over how I can't write. I'm not sure if I have even a little talent left in writing. This one-shot may turn out to be a complete and total piece of shit. It may be that no one but my beta reader will read this. I'll be shocked if I get a review. Seriously, I'll have seizures and everything.**

**This thing is aimed to be written in the next two hours. Then I will go downstairs, send it to be beta'ed, and then post for the first time in months.**

**As the summary says, it's an add-on to Two Sides of a Coin. Does it have a plot? Fuck no. I'm just making this up as I go.**

**You think I'm kidding, don't you?**

**A TSC chapter will be up by Friday. Haha, like I haven't made that promise before. But I have it planned out, and I want to bloody write again. So I will.**

**I will.**

…**my fingertips are dusty now. When was the last time I typed on this keyboard? GAH!**

**WARNINGS: I have no reference material. At all. It's all downstairs on the other computer and, quite frankly, I'd like to spend as little time downstairs with my mom's ex-husband as humanely possible. If you see any mistakes, forgive me. I know not what I did. Also, this is set several months into their first year of service, so the chapter next Friday will have happened before this one-shot. And my beta-reader's not here, so spelling errors galore!**

_Shining_

_Heads_

"Riku!'

"Nnrg…" The thick blankets were yanked forcefully downwards, tucking in around his head even further and filling his ears with a cottony bliss.

"RIKU!"

Who was disturbing his damn cottony bliss? Ah, of course…

_Pounce!_

_Bounce._

"Thora, ger off…"

_Bounce, bounce, bounce._

"I swear," Riku muttered, voice muffled through his comforter, "my foot is going to go into a very uncomfortable place if you don't---"

"Riku, Riku, guess what day it is!"

"Thanksgiving." He kicked aimlessly with his foot in Sora's general direction, but this only served for the sheet to twist around his ankle and keep it from ramming into Sora's side. With a sigh, he let it flop down to the mattress.

"No!" Sora whined. Hands were now grabbing at Riku's shoulders, shaking them roughly. "Get up, get up, you idiot! WAKE UP!"

The cottony bliss fizzled, cracked, and set off sparks.

There was a twitch behind Riku's eye now. Fantastic, just what he needed. Twitchy Eye.

"Easter?" he guessed, mind too blurry to think of anything else.

"No, Riku! The last day! It's the last day of the whole _year_!" Sora's fingers skimmed across the down comforter until they dipped below Riku's head and yanked. Riku shouted as his face was suddenly met with what felt like a solid barrier of cold air. "It's New Year's Eve! WAKE UP!"

He blinked groggily, eyebrows furrowed into a glare at the bouncy brunet who sat hunched over him., grinning from ear to ear. He was already dressed in his uniform. In his haste, he'd misplaced several buttons so the material folded over itself. The collar was popped up on one side and the tie looked more like a bow than anything.

And Riku didn't want to tell his friend how that belt looked looped around his leg.

Sighing, resigning himself to a very early morning, Riku propped himself on an elbow and used his free hand to run through his hair, heaving a huge yawn as he did so. Cricking his back, he eyed Sora with a weary eyes as he jumped off the bed and landed on his own, stomach-down. Then, with a last cheesy grin thrown over his shoulder, Sora's head disappeared from view as he dove under his bed. For what, Riku didn't know, nor did ne have any intention of finding out.

Shuffling his legs through the covers, grumbling obsenities under his breath as he did so, he stretched one last time before standing up, tugging down the night shirt that had rode up his chest some time during the night. Shaking out his right leg, which was, in what Riku considered pure ignorance, still asleep. Sora continued to claw around underneath he bed, apparently still looking for something. Riku noted, amused, that Sora's legs still remained on the bed.

And so as he walked to the bathroom, feet padding across the scratchy carpet, he\\is arm _accidentally _brushed against his best friend's knees (rather hard), sending Sora's lower body sailing off the bed. Sora uttered a cry of surprise before his butt landed without a loud _thump _on the floor.

Chuckling, Riku entered the bathroom amidst Sora's many whiny grumbling, muttering to himself, "Good morning indeed."

_Tails_

"Cloud!'

"Nnrg…" The thick blankets were yanked forcefully downwards, crumbling his blond spikes down even further, blue eyes scrunched up as he attempted to catch a few more winks of sleep.

"CLOUD!"

Who was ruining his last few of winks of sleep? Ah, of course…

_Pounce!_

_Bounce._

"Ruffie, ger off…"

_Bounce, bounce, bounce._

"I swear," Cloud muttered, voice muffled through his comforter, "my foot is going to go into a very uncomfortable place if you don't---"

"Cloud, Cloud, guess what day it is!"

"Christmas." He punched aimlessly with his fust in the hyper ninja's general direction, but this only served for the sheet to twist around his wrist and keep it from ramming into Yuffie's face. With a sigh, he let it flop down to the mattress.

"No!" Yuffie whined. Hands were now grabbing at Cloud's shoulders, shaking them roughly. "Get up, get up, you idiot! WAKE UP!"

The last few winks of sleep were waving tantalizingly out of reach, skipping away and leaving behind a bright, sharp light through his eyelids as Yuffie forcefully yanked the blankets down.

Cloud blinked in dawn's early night, staring up into the teenage girl's face. "Yuffie?"

"Yup?"

"How did you get into my room?"

"Ah, another time, Cloud! C'mon, c'mon, breakfast! It's a special one today!"

"I'm serious. How did you---"

"You know why?"

"---get into---"

"It's New Year's Eve!"

"---room?"

"Mwa ha ha! No lock can keep out the Great Ninja Yuffie!"

Cloud sighed irritably,. He lifted his head half-heartedly, and then plopped it right back down again. Too much effort. "You bugged the key off of Leon again, didn't you?"

She giggled mischievously, thrusting herself off the bed by her arms and landing on her feet. Twirling around on the balls of her feet, she grinned cheekily at the peeved blond. "I told him it was either him or you. Surprisingly enough, he chose you! Funny how that happened."

"I'm going to kill him," Cloud said monotonously, staring up at the ceiling.

"Ah, well, good to do it now then," Yuffie said wisely, nodding. "Best not to wait; wouldn't want to start off the new year on the wrong foot!"

"Yuffie?"

"Yeah?"

"Get the hell out of my room."

"Right-o, boss-man!" And she skipped out, leaving the door wide open as she swept through the doorway, cackling all the way until her docile tones died away.

_Heads_

Riku was not happy. As a matter of fact, one could go as far as to say that he downright pissed off.

The source of his unhappiness had disappeared approximately thirty-six minutes ago after stuffing butter and peanut butter smother toast into his mouth as if it were his last meal, and then bounded out of the kitchens, leaving Riku behind with all the chores.

There would be blood shed that night.

And the Throne Room had never looked bigger.

As the head of the castle's maintenance staff has told Riku and Sora a few days ago, New Year's day was the day that all of the Christmas decorations went down and the streamers for the New Year's party went up.

She also told Riku that as a trip was longer one way and then shorter on the way back, this ran opposite. The Christmas decorations went up in a pinch, and when they came down, tissue paper mysteriously disappeared, boxes shrunk to half their size, and the ornaments seemed to have reproduced like rabbits.

It was also this very same person that the silver-haired teen was talking to now, trying desperately to cover up Sora's unexcused absence from the room.

"Honestly, ma'am, I don't have a clue where he went off to," Riku said quickly to the short and stocky dog, who was leering up at him with her dark eyes under a flowery blue and white bonnet strapped to her head, hands furled on her hips and left foot tapping impatiently on the floor as she awaited a reasonable excuse that didn't seem to be coming.

"You don't know?" she barked. "You share the same quarters, do you not?"

"Yes, ma'am," Riku said politely with a smile. His blundering excuses were not getting him far, so he was settling for charm instead.

"And he just disappeared then, did he?" she snapped.

Riku's smile slipped off his face. Charm wasn't working, either. "Well, no…" Riku fingered his right shirt cuff nervously/ "I'm sure he'll be here any minute…"

A great bang like a gun shot sounded as a door flew on it's hinged, banging into the wall, and for a split second Riku could have sworn that the blur swerving into the room was Sora.

"WHEE!"

"Yuffie, get back here!"

His hopes were thouroughly shot in a heart beat.

The good thing was that this distracted the dog's attention as she joined another custodian in the chase of the tinsel-waving ninja who liked like a loose firecracker as she shot across the room, ribbons of shiny tinsel' whipping out behind her. Riku was able to safely melt back into the crowd of servants and watch from a safe distance as he and the others worked to pull down garland from the pillars.

"Argh, how did we get this stuff up there in the first place?"

"Someone climb up there and yank the top down!"

"You do it, then!"

"Hell. No."

A similar argument was being held over by the Christmas tree, where a circle of maids were all pulling down ornaments as fast as they possibly could.

"Where are they all coming from, damnit!?" a short blond hissed as she yanked off a golden angel that she sworn she'd packed at least three times.

It wouldn't be for another ten minutes before they caught the two mischievous chipmunks Chip and Dale, who'd been taking it in turns to throw up packaged ornaments from the maid's feet and re-hang them on the tree exactly where they'd came from.

Vengeance was served with several well placed kicks and screams that would shatter stone.

For another half an hour they worked, and the Throne Room had made barely any progress. The tree was stripped down to bare lights and a thick pool of green pine needles spread around the tree five feet in each direction. Crate upon crate of ornaments were stacked haphazardly everywhere, making it even more difficult to move.

Tempers were running high, but none as thundering as Riku's. who couldn't even understand why he felt so angry in the first place.

It wasn't as if he wasn't used to Sora skirting his duties, because he was. Every now and then (more times than Riku liked to count, that was for sure) Sora had disappeared to one place or another, but never for this long. Usually it was to sneak some food from the kitchens or join Yuffie in some juvenile scheme of some sort. Hell, sometimes Riku even joined in. But wasn't this going just a bit too far?

Not only was Riku pulling his own, but he had to drag along all of Sora's duties as well, which included sweeping up the pine needles, helping to unwind the countless strands of lights that wound around the tree, and carting the boxes of decoration down to the storage cellar.

The Twitchy Eye was back again.

_Tails_

Sora panted, his breath frosty before his eyes and rubbing his nose a raw red in the late December frost. The icy cobblestone street crunched beneath his feet, and he rubbed at his goose bump prickled arms with bare hands, teeth chattering slightly, He'd bounded out of the castle before even considering the temperature. Now he was outside in the middle of Town Square, coatless, gloveless, scarfless, and saneless.

Or would that just make him insane? Yes, insane sounded much better to the brunet.

He was heading down the familiar street, hands now stuffed into his pockets. Riku had made sure to fix up his clothes before they left the room that morning.

"Sora, the belt… you forgot the belt…" Riku had said.

"What's wrong with the belt? I like it like this?"

"Ugh… Sora, just fix the damn belt!"

Sora still didn't understand what was so wrong with it, but Riku was in a bad mood today anyway, so he was probably just shooting off random complaints again.

Sora thought of what kind of attitude his best friend would have towards him later that day when he returned. He shuddered again, and it had nothing to do with the bitter cold weather.

All along the street were families with dreary faces as they pulled down their Christmas lights, pulled the wreathes off their hooks, and boxing away the plush snowman and Santa Claus statues. Perhaps it was because Sora hadn't had any real decorations to take down for the last few years that he didn't quite feel the gloom in the air. Sure he was sad to see the reds and greens of the season go, but it was to make way for the new year!

Maybe he'd never understand it, no better than why everyone waited until the last day of the year to do such a depressing thing. Really, they should have done it all on Boxing Day and get it over with if they were going to act do depressed about doing it.

The light was bright, but instead of warming his cheek it just seemed to intensify the cold air surrounding him. He walked a bi \t faster, very aware of the curious glances he was getting from the civilians. They were undoubtedly wandering why someone was walking down the street on such a cold day with nothing on but a pair of pants and a thin dress shirt.

Eventually, the windows along the road became blank and dusty, the frost covering them seemingly thickening so that he could no longer see through them. The shoveled roads came to an abrupt stop, a wall of six inches of snow meeting Sora's feet. He took it in stride, widening his steps into a sort of march. His footprints were large holes as the snow cracked. It was not a fine powder but more like thin layers of ice, all stacked up and crumbling one-by-one under a eighty-pound boy's footsteps.

The sun rays began to thin, as they always seemed to when Sora headed through the outskirts of town. Riku had always called it the shadow of Disney Village.

"It's almost like the town's reflection," Riku had once said. "You know, like in the stories your mom used to read to us? The dark half."

And it stuck.

It took twenty minutes for Sora to get to his final destination as opposed to the normal ten. The snow was magnificently annoying to get through. When he did, thought, a small smile lit his face.

No matter how homey Disney Castle was, this was truly home-sweet-home, as horribly cliché it sounded.

Sora stepped under the bleached and worn awning that hung down dangerously with packed snow that had accumulated there since the beginning of winter. Sora'd never understood how it could stay up for so long. He stamped his feet on the dry dirt floor to shake of the snow and bring back some feeling to his numbed toes. Freeing his hands to once more rub at his arms, Sora walked quickly through the abandoned store to the doorway to the right. Fingering the threadbare curtain for a brief moment, feeling its familiar texture for the first time in months, Sora swept it aside and entered.

The room was much darker than it usually was, and the brunet spotted the reason in a matter of second. The twin windows to the right were completely shielded by ice and snow, blocking out all light and sending a sort of gray shadows cutting through the darkness.

Sora took a few steps to the right and reached up to the first windows. Fisting his hand, he rapped hard on the top left hand corner of the glass several times with a practiced strength. And then, all in one sheet, the snow popped out of the window frame like a cork from a bottle and fell to the ground.

Grinning, Sora went to the next windows and repeated the action. He and Riku had learned this trick years ago during their first winter in this place. The very back room was too cold to stay in, so they came out here. They'd learned how to knock it off from the inside. There was a small ditch to the side of the store, the pavement haven crumbled a long time ago, making it impossible to get to from the outside.

Once that was done and sunlight shown through the cracked windows once more, Sora stepped though the dim light. His fingers slid easily over the wall until they found a fine crack in the wall, barely wide enough to slide a pick in. Sora duck his nails into the crevice and, with a pull, the swollen stone slid from the wall and swung on rusty hinges. A puff of smoke seemed to rise from the ground life fog to swirl around his feet as he entered his old home.

The ground was almost completely empty now. A few weeks after riku'd been released from Aerith's care, they were given permission to come back here once more to gather whatever belongings they still possessed. They'd cleared out everything in one trip, and Sora had been pretty sure they'd gotten it all.

Until a few days ago, when he realized he was missing something very crucial for this day. Well, not exactly crucial. It was rather small, very old, useless, and he could have gotten a new one if he ever asked.

But this one was special, and he wasn't leaving until he found it.

With a sigh, Sora got down on his hands and knees, dust rising and floating like mist through the faint light from the room outside, and began his search.

_Heads_

"Hello, Riku. Where's Sora?"

Riku looked up from where he was sitting into dark brown eyes that twinkled questioningly down at him from underneath brown bangs.

"Hey Aerith," Riku replied automatically, looking back down at his glass of iced tea that he didn't want as much as he thought he did.

It was six 'o' clock in the evening and the Throne room, as well as everyone other chamber of the castle had been stripped of all holiday cheer. Random bangs and fizzling noises erupted periodically as another sparkler was set off. A huge table had been put together to run the length of the Throne Room, a checkered table cloth running the length of it. The wooden table was heavily laden with food. Crackers, chips, sweet, hot dogs, hamburgers, and juices were set along it for the guests and servants of the castle to feast on, and Riku had to admit, they deserved it. They had worked at this place for close to twelve ours, and they all needed a break.

But Riku couldn't relax because of a certain brunet who had been gone all day long.

Riku knew better than anyone that Sora could take care of himself, but now he was seriously starting to worry. Sora'd been so happy and excited that morning for New Year's Eve, and now he was absent from the celebrations. Something about that jyst didn't sit right with him.

Aerith was saying something.

Riku blinked at her before he uttered a confused, "Huh?"

Aerith smiled understandingly and repeated herself. "Have you seen Sora anywhere? I haven't seen him all day."

"Oh," Riku said. "No, I haven't." He looked back down at his knees, swirling the untouched tea idly around the cup., A few drops spilled over the edge, leaking down onto his fingers. The edge of the cup were slightly bent, the bottom was starting to get soft. There was a burn mark on the floor below his feet. A fly was buzzing around here somewhere. Was that possible? Do flies buzz in winter? Do flies live in winter? Did they hibernate? Riku entertained himself for a few moments by thinking of flies curled up under miniature blankets with miniscule alarm clocks next to them and a Flavor of the Month calendar on the wall, fly edition.

Aerith was saying something again, and this time she didn't seem to be too pleased that Riku's attention had drifted once again.

"I said," Aerith said in a calm voice, "that you should go look for him. It might be a bit more productive than sitting around her, hm?"

"Oh, yeah." Riku stood up quickly as if this were what he planned on doing next anyway. Setting his tea down to the side and, with a swift smile at Aerith, he turned and left without another word. Maybe he'd feel bad about sulking around later.

Or maybe not. Probably not.

Aerith frowned after the brooding teen for a few minutes before releasing a dainty sigh. Turning and picking up the discard cup to take to the trash. It was a one in a million chance that Riku would becoming back anyway.

Five minutes later, after she'd spotted Leon and started making her way over to him (he was eyeing a group of obnoxious girls as if he were ready to kill), someone came bounding into the room, trailing behind him sooty footprints and great globs of snow.

Blinking in surprise, Aerith waited as Sora ran up to her. He was clutching at his side, and in his other hand she spotted a colorful something, but it was far too small to see.

"Aerith," Sora gasped out, looking up at her. His face was dirty and shining with sweat, cheeks and nose rosy from the cold weather and the flow of adrenaline. "Aerith, have you seen Riku?"

"He just went looking for you…" the woman began slowly, looking at him worriedly. "Sora, where have you been all day? You're filthy… everyone was worried about you." Which was a lie. Everyone was far too busy to notice the absence of one boy.

"Which way'd he go?" Sora interjected quickly. "I need to see him…"

"Erm…" Aerith bit her lower lip for a moment in thought before she said," he went to the right… maybe up to your room?"

"Oh, okay!" Sora breathed, grinning up at her. "Thanks, Aerith!"

"Sora, where've you---?"

"I'll explain later!" Sora promised her. He had already turned around and was running back to the door. "I've got to find Riku! Sorry!" He paused as the door way as if struck by an afterthought. He shook his head, shouted, "Happy New Year!" over his shoulder, and ran to his left.

"To the right, Sora!"

Sora ran by again, gave a cheerful wave, and disappeared from swight for the second time.

Aerith waited until she heard Sora's footsteps finally disappear before allowing herself to release a soft sigh, folding her arms across her chest and cocking her head to the side. A shadow fell over her and she looked over. Leon was standing next to her, giving her a questioning look.

"What was that about?" he asked.

Aerith shrugged before smiling. "I'm sure it's nothing big," she assured him. "C'mon, want to get something to drink?"

_Tails_

"Sooo… are you mad at me?"

"Yes."

"Would a cookie make you feel any better?"

"No… well, maybe a little…"

Sora grinned triumphantly and dug around in his pocket with his free hand. The other hand was still furled in the other pocket, clasped tightly around his treasure. He pulled out a small stack of chocolate chip cookies that he'd nicked from the kitchens before coming up here. He unfolded the napkin to reveal four of the snacks; he handed one to Riku and helped himself to another.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, the cold night air blowing against their faces. The sky twinkled down merrily, ticking down the minutes until a new year. The air had seemed to pick up an octave, chilling them to the bone, but they remained sitting there on the roof of the castle lying on their backs and gazing up at the sky. It was the only place that they were assured absolute privacy, and sine neither of the teens felt like being wrangled into the new Year's party, here they remained. They could hear the distant shouts and laughter floating up from in the castle, the voices of the crowd flowing through the halls. They sounded as if they were ongoing to incite a riot any minute now. They weren't exactly hard-pressed don deciding which place they like more.

"So…" began hesitantly, ready to voice the question the brunet had been ignoring all afternoon, "where have you been all day? Ready to tell me yet."

"Hm…" Sora rubbed his chin thoughtfully, humming softly to himself. "I dunno. You ready to hear?' he asked cheekily.

Riku, without shifting his body from the shingles, punched his friend on the shoulder.

"Ouch! Don't hit me, Riku!"

"I'll hit you if I want. Now where were you all day?"

Muttering to himself darkly for a few minutes, Sora finally withdrew his hand from his pocket. He seemed to be fidgeting with something. Riku glanced over and blinked.

In Sora's hand he held a small pouch. The yarn was faded from a one annoying brightly color to something much duller, but it still brought him a sense of strong familiarity. It was a navy blue on the bottom of the small sack, stretching up into little points. It was met with a bright red that went all the way to the top, fading to orange and yellow at the very brim. It was empty and there were tiny holed where moths had chewed through.

"Is that…" Riku began, but Sora cut him off.

"Yup!" he said cheerfully, positively beaming now. I was looking around for it all day… Heh heh, it was caught in one of the cracks in the corner. Underneath that old rug. Remember? We hid it there so we wouldn't lose it? Took me forever to find it anyway…"

"Wish…"

_"It's a wish bag!"_

_A small child, silver hair cropped short below his earlobes, looke \d up from the book he was so closely poring over._

"Remember what my mom said?"

_"Put all your wishes in the bag, Riku! And-and-and they'll come true!"_

"Of course."

_"Heh, really?"_

_"Yeah!"_

"Think we need it?"

"Somehow… I really don't think so."

_End One-Shot_

**Happy New Year**


End file.
